pleurer

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French pleurer, from Old French plourer, plorer, from Latin plōrāre (“cry out”). Cognate with Catalan plorar, Spanish llorar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plœ.ʁe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

pleurer

1. (intransitive) to cry, to weep; to shed tears
   • 1926, Pierre Louÿs, Trois filles de leur mère, Paris: René Bonnel:

     Elle pleurait simplement, sans aucun sanglot, mais n’en paraissait que plus pitoyable.

     She wept simply, without sobs, but only seemed the more pitiable for it.

   • 1940, Out-el-Kouloub, “Zaheira”, in Trois contes de l'Amour et de la Mort, éditions Corrêa:

     Elle mit un instant à recouvrer son souffle. Non ! Elle ne pleurerait pas devant lui.

     She took a moment to catch her breath. No! She would not cry in front of him.

2. (transitive) to mourn, to cry for
   • 2019 October 14, Allan Kaval, “Réduits à solliciter le renfort de Damas, les Kurdes pleurent la fin d’un monde”, in Le Monde:

     Pleurait-elle ces nouveaux morts, venus rejoindre, dans des tombes aux couronnes fleuries, les 10 000 jeunes hommes et femmes tombés au combat ? Ou pleurait-elle la fin d’un monde ?

     Was she weeping for the newly dead, who had just arrived to join—in graves crowned with flowers—the 10,000 young men and women fallen in combat? Or was she weeping for the end of a world?

Conjugation

Conjugation of pleurer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	pleurer
	compound	avoir past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	pleurant /plœ.ʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant past participle
past participle		pleuré /plœ.ʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	pleure /plœʁ/	pleures /plœʁ/	pleure /plœʁ/	pleurons /plœ.ʁɔ̃/	pleurez /plœ.ʁe/	pleurent /plœʁ/
	imperfect	pleurais /plœ.ʁɛ/	pleurais /plœ.ʁɛ/	pleurait /plœ.ʁɛ/	pleurions /plœ.ʁjɔ̃/	pleuriez /plœ.ʁje/	pleuraient /plœ.ʁɛ/
	past historic2	pleurai /plœ.ʁe/	pleuras /plœ.ʁa/	pleura /plœ.ʁa/	pleurâmes /plœ.ʁam/	pleurâtes /plœ.ʁat/	pleurèrent /plœ.ʁɛʁ/
	future	pleurerai /plœ.ʁə.ʁe/	pleureras /plœ.ʁə.ʁa/	pleurera /plœ.ʁə.ʁa/	pleurerons /plœ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/	pleurerez /plœ.ʁə.ʁe/	pleureront /plœ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	pleurerais /plœ.ʁə.ʁɛ/	pleurerais /plœ.ʁə.ʁɛ/	pleurerait /plœ.ʁə.ʁɛ/	pleurerions /plœ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	pleureriez /plœ.ʁə.ʁje/	pleureraient /plœ.ʁə.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	pleure /plœʁ/	pleures /plœʁ/	pleure /plœʁ/	pleurions /plœ.ʁjɔ̃/	pleuriez /plœ.ʁje/	pleurent /plœʁ/
	imperfect2	pleurasse /plœ.ʁas/	pleurasses /plœ.ʁas/	pleurât /plœ.ʁa/	pleurassions /plœ.ʁa.sjɔ̃/	pleurassiez /plœ.ʁa.sje/	pleurassent /plœ.ʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	pleure /plœʁ/	—	pleurons /plœ.ʁɔ̃/	pleurez /plœ.ʁe/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir past participle	simple imperative of avoir past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• à pleurer
• faire pleurer le colosse
• pleurer à chaudes larmes
• pleurer à mouchoir que veux-tu
• pleurer comme une madeleine
• pleurer des larmes de sang
• pleurer toutes les larmes de son corps
• pleureur
• pleureuse
• tel qui rit vendredi, dimanche pleurera

 

Descendants

• Antillean Creole: pléré
• Guianese Creole: pléré
• Mauritian Creole: plore
• → Esperanto: plori

See also

• larmoyer

Further reading

• “pleurer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.